Invalid chair



Nov. 16, 1965 F. LA MONTE SPECKETER 3,

INVALID CHAIR 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 27, 1963 FlG ..2

INVENTOR W FIG FRANCIS L. SPECKETER ATTORNEYS N 1965 F. LA MONTE SPECKETER 3,

INVALID CHAIR Filed March 27, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOQ. FRANCIS L. SPEOKETER ATTORNEYS Nov. 16, 1965 Filed March 27, 1963 F. LA MONTE SPECKETER INVALID CHAIR 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG " llllrlllflm Hull-.5 I.

FRANCIS L. SPEOKETER INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS nited States atent Fine 3,218,102 INVALID CHAIR Francis La Monte Specketer, 9602 US. 99 S., Everett, Wash. Filed Mar. 27, 1963, Ser. No. 268,309 Claims. (Cl. 297-330) The present invention relates to an improved invalid chair of the type wherein the seat is hinged at the front and selectively swings up and down at the rear to help incapacitated persons get in and out of the chair without requiring assistance.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a comfortable upholstered arm chair which may be of standard appearance and yet incorporates such a swing seat for use when needed, and has a reliable and safe lifting mechanism which can be readily controlled by the chair occupant.

Another object is to provide a lifting mechanism for the seat which gives improved performance and is of simple and economical construction.

Still a further object is to provide a novel swing seat construction for such a chair which utilizes a comfortable seat cushion without sacrificing safety and reliability of operation.

More particular objects and advantages will appear in the course of the following description and claims, the invention consisting in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views illustrating a chair embodying the present invention and with the seat thereof shown, respectively, in lowered and raised position;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the chair frame with the seat frame shown in raised position;

FIG. 4 is a wiring diagram of the control circuit for the motor used to power the lifting mechanism for the seat;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view to an enlarged scale taken as indicated by line 55 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view taken along the line 66 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a detail longitudinal vertical sectional view at the front of the seat;

FIG. 8 is a transverse vertical sectional view through the seat taken along the line 88 of FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 is a detail horizontal sectional view taken as indicated by line 99 in FIG. 8.

Referring to the drawings it is seen that in accordance with the present invention an upholstered arm chair 10 is provided having a forwardly hinged swing seat 11 powered by a lifting mechanism 12. The frame 13 and upholstery of the chair may be of standard construction, but as shown in FIG. 5, the frame has added thereto a bottom platform 14 supported as by corner gussets 15 for carrying the lifting mechanism 12.

The swing seat 11 has a box frame 16 with springs 17 supporting the seat cushion 18 and has its front rail 16a fixed along the upper portion of its front face to one leaf of a continuous hinge 20. The other leaf is secured to the top face of the front plate 13a of the chair frame. Stops 21 projecting from the frame are arranged to engage the seat frame when the latter is in its lowered position to then relieve the lifting mechanism of strain when the chair is occupied. It should be noted that the seat cushion 18, which may be of sponge rubber, projects forwardly of the seat frame the thickness of the front chair frame plate 13a so as to overlap the latter. An envelope 19 encloses the seat cushion 18, and has an anchoring skirt 22 which covers the sides and back of the seat frame and is tacked to the under side thereof. The portion of the envelope 19 which covers the top, four vertical sides, and the under side of the forwardly projecting portion of the seat cushion will normally be made of the chair covering fabric while the portion 19a of the envelope which covers the rest of the bottom of the cushion may be of denim. It can be seen that the seam at the back and two sides of the bottom portion 19a has been designated 20 whereas the seam at the front, such being located at the top of the front rail 16a of the seat frame, is numbered 24. The skirt 22 has flaps 22a which cover the front corners of the seat frame and are tacked to the front rail 16a. A second skirt 23, independent of the skirt 22, is stitched to the underside of the envelope 19 at the seam 24. From this seam 24 the skirt 23 extends forwardly to overlap the top face of the front plate 13a and the related leaf of the hinge 20. Then it depends part way over the front face of plate 13a and is tacked thereto along the lower edge of the skirt. The tacks are covered by a front welt 25 from whence other of the chair upholstering 26 continues over the remainder of the front plate 13a. For simplicity of illustration the usual padding between the upholstery fabric and the frame has not been shown. The rest of the chair upholstering is standard.

The front and back rails 16a-16b of the seat frame have bottom cutouts 160 between which extend a rigid track comprising a parallel spaced pair of bars 27 screwed at their ends to the floor of the cutouts. An elongated roller 28 travels on these track bars responsive to operation of the lifting mechanism 12 which will now be described.

The bed frame for the lifting mechanism comprises an inverted channel 29 welded upon front and back anchoring bars 30-31 having screw openings for mounting to the chair platform 14. It will be noted that the rear bar 31 is complemented by an intermediate bar 31a and that both have hinged extensions making a mounting base 39 for an electric motor 33. This motor drives a jack screw 34 via sheaves 35-36 and belt 37 giving a speed reduction. Tension on the belt 37 is controlled by an adjusting bolt 49. The jack screw 34 imparts linear motion to a traveler nut 38 which moves between front and rear bearings 4041, the blocks of which are bolted to the web of the bed channel 29. At its ends the traveler nut has trunnions 42-42 on which are journaled inner and outer pairs 4343 and 44-44 of rollers retained by washers 46 and nuts 47. The inner pair of rollers tracks on the bed channel 29 while the outer pair works on the under cam edge of a pair of lifting arm 45-45. These arms are swingably mounted at the front by a bolt 46 which traverses the front portion of the channel 29, and at their free rear ends carry a cross-bolt 47 which serves as an axle for the roller 28. The inner faces of the lift arms are held in engagement with the ends of an intermediate spacer 48 by a bolt 50. It should be noted that the lift arms are arched downwardly longitudinally with a curvature such that they will swing at a uni-form angular speed about the bolt 46 responsive to a uniform linear travel rate of the rollers 44. Also, it will be noted that the lift arms extend upwardly beyond the outer longitudinal side edges of the track bars 27 and thereby supplement the hinge 29 in restricting side away of the seat relative to the rest of the chair while the seat is being raised or lowered.

The motor 33 is a direct reversible type and is controlled by a two-pole three-way switch 53 which is conveniently located on one of the chair arms. Referring to the circuit diagram of FIG. 4, the center terminal of the switch connects by a lead 54 directly to the motor while the other lead 55 of the motor alternately connects by two branches 55a and 55b to the other two poles of the switch. Branches 55a-55b contain self-closing switches 56 and S7 with respective leaf-spring actuators 56a and 57a. These switches are mounted at opposite ends of the mounting base of the lifting mechanism with their actuators positioned such as to be engaged by the leftlifting arm 45, the actuator 56a when the lifting arms are in lowered position as shown by full lines in FIG. 5, and the actuator 57a when the lifting arms are in raised position as shown by the broken lines of FIG. 5. Thus, when the lifting arms are in lowered position switch 56 is open and switch 57 is closed, whereas switch 57 is open and switch 56 is closed when the lifting arms reach their raised position.

Accordingly, when the switch 53 is pushed by the chair occupant from the central off position illustrated in FIG. 4 to the up position, the power circuit to the motor 33 is completed through branch 55a and switch 57, and the motor drives the jack screw 34 such as to move the traveler nut 38 forward, thereby lifting the arms 45 to walk the roller 28 forwardly along the track 27 and responsively swing the seat 11 about its hinge 20 to the raised position shown in FIG. 2. During this action the pressure of the swinging seat on the buttocks and upper thighs of the chair occupant raises him effortlessly substantially to a standing position. When the lifting arms 45 reach the raised position they engage the actuator 57a and open switch 57 so that power to the motor is automatically shut off.

When the incapacitated wishes to seat himself he merely backs against the raised seat and pushes the switch 53 to the down position whereupon the motor 33 is powered in the reverse direction by way of completion of the power circuit through branch 55b and switch 56 and reversal of the switch terminal to lead 54. Then when the seat reaches the lowered position the motor is turned off automatically by opening the switch 56 responsive to engagement of its actuator 56a by the left lifting arm 45.

It will be noted from FIG. 1 that when the seat is in lowered position the chair has a conventional appear ance, a Lawson style having been shown for purposes of example. Furthermore, there is no sacrifice of comfort so that the chair maintains fully utility for those persons having no disability while having the above described lifting advantage for the incapacitated.

It is believed that the invention will have been clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description of my now preferred illustrated embodiments. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be. implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What I claim, is: 1. In combination, an arm chair having a swing seat hinged near its front at the front of the chair by hinge means, a roller engaging the bottom of said seat and arranged to roll fore-and-aft therealong, and a lift mechanisrn carried by said chair and including lift arm means carrying said roller near its rear end and having its forward end hinged about a swing axis parallel to that of the swing seat, a jack screw having a traveler nut and having both of its ends rotatable in bearings fixed relative to said hinge means, reversible electric motor means for turning said jack screw, and means between said nut and lift arm means for swinging the lift arm means upwardly and responsively raising the rear of said seat in response to forward travel of said traveler nut along said screw.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which said lift arm means has a downwardly arched cam, and roller means journaled on said traveler nut and riding on said cam, the curvature of said cam being such as to cause said roller means to swing said lift arm means at a constant angular speed responsive to a constant linear speed of said nut.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which said reversible electric motor means has forward and reverse branch circuits controlled by a power switch and each including a respective self-closing switch fixed relative to said chair, said self-closing switches being located adjacent opposite ends of the travel path of said traveler nut and being arranged to be opened responsive to the reaching of the respective of said opposite ends by said traveler nut.

4. The combination of claim 1 in which said lift arm means has a downwardly arched cam, and roller means journaled on said traveler nut and riding on said cam.

5. In combination, an upholstered arm chair having a rigid frame with a front plate, a rigid seat frame behind said front plate and hinged thereto by hinge means, a seat cushion anchored to said seat frame and projecting forwardly thereof to overlap the top of said front plate, said cushion having a front skirt commencing at the back of the forwardly projecting part thereof and extending freely over the top of said front plate and then downwardly to an anchor with the chair, and a lifting mechanism carried by said chair and including lift arm means carrying a roller near its rear end arranged to roll fore-and-aft along the bottom of said seat frame and having its forward end hinged about a swing axis parallel to that of the swing seat, a jack screw having a traveler nut and having both of its ends journaled in bearings fixed relative to said hinge means, reversible electric motor means for turning said jack screw, and means between said nut and lift arm means for swinging the lift arm means upwardly and responsively rais: ing the rear of said seat in response to forward travel of said traveler nut along said screw.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 702,234 6/ 1902 Morley 248-396 924,374 6/ 1909 Percival 554 974,769 11/1910 Hoff 248-496 1,025,915 5/1912 Hoff 297338 1,352,806 9/1920 Gruenfeld 554 1,658,737 2/1928 Ortmeier 579 2,261,728 11/1941 Lawler 248395 2,373,071 4/ 1945 Waranch 551 2,445,258 7/1948 Beem 5-79 2,526,248 10/1950 Luketa 297330 2,63 1,3 00 3/ 1953 Murray 569 2,638,608 5/1953 Garrigus 5-354 3,023,048 2/1962 Barten 297-339 FOREIGN PATENTS 766,163 1/ 1957 Great Britain.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN COMBINATION, AN ARM CHAIR HAVING A SWING SEAT HINGED NEAR ITS FRONT AT THE FRONT OF THE CHAIR BY HINGE MEANS, A ROLLER ENGAGING THE BOTTOM OF SAID SEAT AND ARRANGED TO ROLL FORE-AND-AFT THEREALONG, AND A LIFT MECHANISM CARRIED BY SAID CHAIR AND INCLUDING LIFT ARM MEANS CARRYING SAID ROLLER NEAR ITS REAR END AND HAVING ITS FORWARD END HINGED ABOUT A SWING AXIS PARALLEL TO THAT OF THE SWING SEAT, A JACK SCREW HAVING A TRAVELER NUT AND HAVING BOTH OF ITS ENDS ROTATABLE IN BEARINGS FIXED RELATIVE TO SAID HINGE MEANS, REVERSIBLE ELECTRIC MOTOR MEANS FOR TURNING SAID JACK SCREW, SAID MEANS BETWEEN SAID NUT AND LIFT ARM MEANS FOR SWINGING THE LIFT ARM MEANS UPWARDLY AND RESPONSIVELY RAISING THE REAR OF SAID SEAT IN RESPONSE TO FORWARD TRAVEL OF SAID TRAVELER NUT ALONG SAID SCREW. 